We asked candidates:

  1. The Trump administration has launched an unprecedented attack on the country’s social safety net, cutting billions in funding for food aid, housing and health care. Those cuts, alongside falling tax revenues, have left the county scrambling to do more with less. How specifically will you lead the county to fill the voids created by the loss of those tens of millions of dollars?
  2. Revenue from Metro’s Supportive Housing Services taxes accounts for more than 60% of the county’s homelessness budget. Yet at a time of huge federal cuts and shrinking tax revenues, voters seem unlikely to approve an extension, leaving the county without hundreds of millions of needed dollars to address a growing crisis. What is your plan to address the problem?
  3. What is the most crucial issue facing the county, and what concrete actions will you take to address it?

Multnomah County Chair prepares the budget for deliberation by the county board of commissioners, presides over board meetings and “oversee(s) and administer(s) all county programs except those under the elected sheriff, auditor, district attorney and commissioners.” Current County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, elected in 2022, is not running for reelection.

Name: Shannon Singleton

Current occupation:
District 2 County Commissioner

  1. The federal cuts to food assistance, housing, and health care will have real consequences for people who are already
    struggling. Multnomah County can’t replace every lost federal dollar, but we have a responsibility to protect essential services and make the most effective use of our resources.

    As Chair, my primary focus will be keeping critical programs available to the people who need them most. That means evaluating spending, reducing administrative duplication, and working with community providers and frontline staff to identify where limited dollars can have the greatest impact.

    One significant opportunity is integrating our behavioral health system with our homelessness response. Today, these programs operate in silos, making it difficult to coordinate care. I would bring them together through shared data systems and coordinated budgeting so providers can better connect people to care while identifying savings that can be redirected to direct services.

    We must also work with state and regional partners to pursue additional funding and coordinate our response to federal cuts. These will be difficult budget years. My priority is protecting the services people depend on most while making every dollar count.
  2. Losing Supportive Housing Services funding would be devastating. We can’t afford to wait until funding expires to confront this crisis. Thousands of people depend on these investments to remain housed and access critical services.

    I’ve spent 20 years in social services, including leading JOIN, serving as Governor Brown’s Housing Policy Advisor, and helping pass the SHS measure. I know what works and the consequences of relying on temporary funding for ongoing services.

    My first priority is working with Metro and regional partners to secure continued funding while rebuilding public trust. We must show where dollars are going, what outcomes we’re achieving, and where improvements are needed.

    We must build a more sustainable system by reducing administrative duplication, maximizing Medicaid funding, strengthening eviction prevention, and prioritizing permanent housing. As Chair, I’ll continue redirecting SHS dollars toward housing and integrate behavioral health and homelessness budgeting to remove barriers to treatment.

    If a replacement measure fails, we need a contingency plan that keeps people housed and identifies alternative revenue. Administrative savings alone can’t replace hundreds of millions in dedicated housing funding but we must do whatever we can to protect shelter, treatment, permanent supportive housing, and employment opportunities.
  3. The most crucial issue facing Multnomah County is that too many people are falling through the cracks of our social safety net. Homelessness, behavioral health needs, poverty, and housing instability are connected, but County services too often operate in silos. As a result, people cycle between shelters, emergency rooms, jails, and the streets without getting consistent support.

    One consequence is that we rely on the criminal justice system to respond to crises we could have prevented. We need a broader approach to public safety that invests in youth employment, legal services, restorative justice, pretrial services, and support for victims and survivors.

    Those investments should reflect what communities actually need. For example, Reimagining Justice in Cully shows how residents, providers, and public agencies can design solutions together. I’ve already authored a budget note establishing a restorative justice workgroup to improve coordination and pursue state funding.

    We also have to address the public defense crisis and underfunded courts, which undermine efforts to provide timely justice and alternatives to incarceration. As Chair, I’ll work with state partners on those funding gaps while better connecting County services. Our goal should be preventing crises, not passing people from one system to another.

Name: Julia Brim-Edwards

Current occupation:
District 3 County Commissioner

Prior political office held:

  1.  The Trump administration’s devastating cuts to food assistance, housing, and health care will hurt our most vulnerable neighbors and pressure county services. As Chair, I will fight these cuts, work with Governor Kotek and our congressional delegation to protect critical funding, and ensure the county is doing everything possible to support people who depend on these services. 

    We cannot replace every lost federal dollar, but we can make better use of the resources we have. That starts with a thorough review of county spending, prioritizing essential services, eliminating ineffective programs and unnecessary administrative costs, and holding service providers accountable for delivering results. 

    I’ll also strengthen partnerships with cities, the state, nonprofit organizations, and community-based providers to coordinate services, reduce duplication, and leverage additional resources. 

    We must prioritize preventing homelessness before it happens, maintaining access to food and health care, and expanding effective mental health and addiction treatment. As Commissioner, I’ve supported eviction prevention funding, expanded sobering and crisis stabilization services, and pushed for greater transparency and accountability in county spending. 

    My guiding principle is straightforward: government must improve people’s lives. Especially during a funding crisis, every available dollar must make a meaningful difference for the people who need it most.
  2. Metro’s Supportive Housing Services funding is essential to addressing homelessness in Multnomah County. Losing these resources would have devastating consequences for people experiencing homelessness and those at risk of losing their housing. 

    Voters have lost confidence because the County has spent hundreds of millions of dollars under the current Chair’s leadership, and there are still too many people on our streets, and the public isn’t seeing the results it expects.

    As Chair, I’ll focus on rebuilding public trust by demonstrating these investments are making a measurable difference. That means conducting independent audits, requiring clear performance standards for service providers, publicly reporting outcomes, and redirecting funding from ineffective programs to approaches that work. 

    I’ll prioritize preventing homelessness through eviction prevention and housing stabilization, moving people into permanent housing, expanding recovery housing, and integrating mental health and addiction treatment with housing services. No more silos at the County. 

    I’ll work with other elected leaders to develop a sustainable long-term funding strategy that protects essential services and reduces administrative duplication. 

    I support continued dedicated funding for homelessness services, but maintaining public support requires accountability, transparency, and measurable progress. We must demonstrate that we’re helping people move off the streets and into stable housing.
  3. Our County is not on the right track, and County government is not effectively getting after our biggest challenges. Too many people don’t have a path from the streets to housing and many also face the interconnected crises of addiction and untreated mental illness. Too many neighborhoods and workplaces aren’t safe, local businesses and working families are struggling. 

    As Chair, I’ll prioritize preventing homelessness through eviction prevention and housing stabilization, expanding shelter and housing options, and helping people move into permanent housing. I’ll strengthen coordination with the cities in the County to ensure we’re working together rather than duplicating efforts.

    Finally, I’ll work with labor and local businesses to kickstart the economy so that we have a thriving, affordable and safe place we all can call home.

Name: Sharon Meieran

Current occupation: Physician, attorney

Prior political office held: District 1 County Commissioner

  1. Federal cuts will be devastating. But Multnomah County was failing vulnerable people long before these cuts, despite spending enormous sums on homelessness, mental health, and addiction services. As an emergency physician, I cared for people in crisis because our safety net had failed them. As a county commissioner, I learned why: fragmented programs, uncoordinated services, and spending disconnected from results. We spend hundreds of millions without a coherent system to move people from crisis to stability.

    We cannot afford to continue this way, especially now. That’s why I worked with experts, service providers, and people experiencing these failures to develop a comprehensive turnaround plan built on four principles:
    • Organize for impact: Integrate fragmented services into a coordinated system focused on prevention, intervention, and lasting stability.
    • Measure what matters: Track evictions prevented, people housed, and stability achieved—not simply dollars spent or services delivered.
    • Tie budgets to results: Start with what people need and build budgets around achieving measurable outcomes.
    • Account for every dollar: Make spending and results publicly transparent.

      We cannot replace every federal dollar. But we can stop wasting the dollars we have—and make every one count.
  2. Multnomah County is our social safety net. A functioning county government is essential to healthy, safe communities. But our county is failing at its core responsibilities. Despite enormous spending, we have among the nation’s highest rates of unsheltered homelessness, and the crisis continues to worsen.

    The answer cannot simply be to ask taxpayers for more money while continuing to operate the same failing system. We need to demonstrate that public dollars are actually improving people’s lives. I spent a year working with experts, service providers, and people directly affected by these failures to develop a comprehensive plan to transform how Multnomah County operates. My plan would integrate fragmented services, establish a reliable baseline of need, tie spending to measurable outcomes, and publicly account for every dollar. We would prioritize preventing homelessness, moving people from streets and shelters into housing, and helping them remain stable. The full plan is presented at fixmultco.com.

    If SHS funding expires, we will face difficult choices. Systems transformation is essential both to protect critical services if funding disappears and to restore public confidence in continued investment.

    We cannot expect voters to keep funding a system that cannot show them what their money accomplishes.
  3. The county’s most urgent challenge is its failure to provide a functioning continuum of mental health and addiction services — a failure directly connected to our homelessness and public safety crises.

    As an emergency physician, street medicine volunteer, and county commissioner, I witnessed these failures firsthand. I also saw the disconnect between those making policies and those living with their consequences.

    As commissioner, I convened providers, people with lived experience, and community experts to identify barriers and develop a framework for a functioning behavioral health system. There was remarkable agreement: We must put people, not programs or politics, at the center.

    Together, we identified four priority investments:
    • Centralized coordination: Real-time knowledge of people’s needs, available services, and capacity, with clear accountability.
    • Expanded treatment: Intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization programs to help more people access appropriate care.
    • Recovery housing: Stable environments supporting recovery, life skills, employment, and community.
    • Intensive care teams: Dedicated teams staying with people through treatment, housing, and other critical transitions.
      This framework, developed with the people who know these systems inside and out, is available at FixMultco.com.

      As Chair, I won’t need another study or another promise. I’ll be ready to implement solutions starting on day one.